A.G. Gancarski
On Monday in the Jacksonville mayoral race, the Lenny Curry campaign made a surprising challenge: debate Mayor Alvin Brown in every city council district, in addition to debating him in the Action News Jax debate on May 6.
Curry proposed adding “a series of town hall meetings, one for each Jacksonville City Council district, from next week until the end of the campaign.”
“For 60 to 90 minutes, three times per week, you and I would be available not simply on television, but in a community-based venue open to the public. Being in each region would allow us to have discussions not only about the vision for the entire city, but localized consideration of special challenges facing unique areas of Jacksonville,” Curry said.
Curry’s proposal for an unprecedented 17 debates before the runoff is not likely to happen, if the Brown campaign’s response to “Party Boss Lenny Curry” is any indication. In the words of Brown Campaign Manager Isaiah Nelson, the letter is just “another partisan campaign stunt from a political party boss who knows all the tricks in the book. This is a partisan attempt to distract the voters from the real issues at hand — how to keep Jacksonville moving forward with new jobs, safe neighborhoods and a growing economy that works for every citizen in our community. Boss Curry doesn’t want to talk about these issues, but would prefer partisan sideshows, because he knows Mayor Brown’s record is strong.
“Mayor Brown is running a positive campaign about Jacksonville’s future, and he will be sharing his vision with voters across Jacksonville for the next six weeks as well as in the two debates before the May election,” Nelson said.
The two men are booked to debate twice on Jacksonville television in the final week before the May 19 election.
